Inside the mind of a Jewish Social Justice Organizer Poet Musician from New York

Friday, October 24, 2008

Bad Horror Movie

Remember those scenes in the bad horror movie? The one where two characters (not ones who survive, usually) think they've escaped from whatever evil thing is chasing them, they make it out, they're in a room, and it's quiet, like, okay this storm has passed, and then... BAM! MONSTERS EAT THEM ALIVE!

Despite an awesome week, despite the fact that I've got at least ten volunteers coming this sunday, I have that bad feeling in my stomach. People are getting complacent. My guess is if you're reading this blog, this invective is not directed at you. You've probably been up here twice or phonebanked several hours several times in the last couple weeks.

But a friend went from having a carload of people and a car to needing a ride. One is doing another campaign related thing, but the other two... she doesn't know why they dropped out. Maybe something serious happened. Maybe they're just tired. Maybe (this one scares me the most) they looked at today's polls and said, you know what? I don't need to go up there. They'll be fine without me. Obama's up by 10, it's a cinch, I'm going to just chill out.

Sigh. Cue monster.

that's usually the point where the Republicans snatch victory and Democrats snatch defeat. Because they're always fighting to win. They don't let up. They're down what could be an insurmountable deficit and they're still throwing everything they can at Obama. Making shit up. robocalls. and I can tell you from the doors i knock every day seven days (sigh) a week that it's working on some folks.

I'm torn. I don't want to be the boy who cried wolf. Or an insuferable self righteous jerk, because no one likes them. But at the same time, I gave up my life for four months so we could have a vaguely sane person at the helm for the next four years, and doing this work every single day makes it hard for me to be sympathetic to someone cancelling on a friend's caravan b/c they suddenly have to train for a marathon.

If McCain wins, we're all going to need to be able to run.

It's probably not right for me to be this frustrated, but it's challenging for me to think about people not having priorities like, "save the country and the world from a lunatic with a worse temper than bush's" and it's not even enough for Obama to win, he needs to have a congress that will work with him.

I know folks are tired from chaggim, I know many many people are doing all they can. Even EI borrowed SS's car and took her mom up here to canvass today. But there are some folks thinking it's january 21st when we haven't even hit November.

I've missed my first wedding anniversary, the birthdays of my wife, dad, niece, and many close friends, the birth of one nephew and the pending birth of a niece/nephew, my brother's brief return to ny for his birthday, rough times for my friends, high holidays with my family, the staged premiere of a close friend's really great play, simchas torah at hadar, sukkos anywhere, summer in NYC, san gennaro, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many concerts to count, the waterfalls, the last home game at Yankee Stadium, the beginnings of the Giants and Rangers' seasons, a two week trip to Africa with my family, and that's just the stuff I can think of off the dome at nearly two am.

I cannot have missed all that in vain. Thank you for what you've done. If you can't get here in NH, VA, or even PA, give a few shekels so someone else can. Get on the phone. Lest you need a reminder of why we can't sit back and enjoy a "lead" this is the electoral-vote projection map I looked at before I went to bed for an hour nap between 3 and 4 am on 11/2/2004, before I got up to work my first real E-Day: